Computerized Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders (CAST-O)

Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System

Status: Completed

Conditions: Opioid Use Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: Computerized Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other U.S. Federal agency; Other

Identifiers

NCT03944850

365

Details and patient eligibility

About

The primary aim of the current project is to test the acceptability and feasibility of a computerized intervention, titled Computerized Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment (CAST), delivered to Veterans seeking treatment for an opioid use disorder. The second aim of the study is to examine the utility of CAST by gathering data on symptom change. The final aim of the current study is to test the effects of CAST on rates of attendance and retention in a substance use disorder treatment (SUDT) program.

Full description

The pilot project will examine the effects of a brief, one-session computerized intervention delivered to Veterans seeking treatment for an opioid use disorder. The opioid epidemic in the United States (US) is having a disproportionate impact on Veterans. Indeed, Veterans are twice as likely to die from an accidental opioid overdose than members of the general population, even after accounting for gender and age distribution. Although many individuals with an opioid addiction seek treatment, a large proportion drop out prematurely and/or relapse, highlighting the need to identify modifiable factors that may contribute to this process. One variable that may be useful in understanding attrition in addiction treatment is anxiety sensitivity (AS). AS is a well-established psychological risk factor reflecting the tendency to fear anxious arousal due to the belief that this arousal will have harmful physical, mental, and/or social consequences. AS is elevated in opioid use populations and predicts treatment dropout among opioid users. Importantly, research suggests that AS is highly malleable. Despite this, to our knowledge no published research to date has systematically explored the utility of AS reduction protocols among opioid users. The first aim of the current project is to test the acceptability and feasibility of a brief, one-session Computerized AS Treatment (CAST) delivered to Veterans seeking treatment for an opioid use disorder. Because this is a pilot project and the study will likely be underpowered to detect treatment effects, we will not emphasize symptom reduction. Nevertheless, a second aim of the current project is to examine the utility of CAST by gathering data on symptom change. Finally, a third aim of the current project is to examine the effects of CAST on rates of attendance and retention in a substance use disorder treatment (SUDT) program.

Enrollment: 32 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Veterans must be diagnosed with an opioid use disorder

Exclusion criteria

• Less than 18 years of age
• Actively suicidal
• Actively psychotic
• Uncontrolled bipolar disorder (i.e., not stable on medications for at least one month)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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32 participants in 1 patient group

Computerized Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment

Experimental group

Description:

CAST is a newly developed computerized intervention designed to closely model the educational and behavioral techniques that are commonly used in the treatment of anxiety and related conditions.The one time intervention takes approximately 45 minutes to complete.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Computerized Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment